Intensive treat-to-target statin therapy and severity of diabetic retinopathy complicated by hypercholesterolaemia

To compare the effects of intensive and standard statin therapy on severity of diabetic retinopathy (DR) complicated by hypercholesterolaemia in a prespecified substudy of the standard vs. intEnsive statin therapy for hypercholesteroleMic Patients with diAbetic retinopaTHY (EMPATHY) study.

Among 5144 patients in the multicentre, prospective, randomized EMPATHY study, this substudy considered 157 patients with seven-field fundus photographs of sufficient quality taken during study enrolment and at the 3-year visit. Eighty-five and seventy-two patients received intensive and standard statin treatments, respectively, in a treat-to-target manner. The primary endpoint was a two-step change in the Early Treatment Diabetic Retinopathy Study (ETDRS) DR severity scale at 36 months. Surrogate markers included changes in hard exudates, changes in visual acuity, and additional ocular treatments during study follow-up.

Intensive and standard treatment groups did not differ significantly in terms of changing two or more steps on the DR severity scale (P = 0.4380). In patients with severe DR, defined as ≥47 on the severity scale, exploratory analysis showed more frequent improvement of DR, by at least one step, with intensive vs. standard treatment (83.3% vs. 40.0%; P = 0.0346). The intensive and standard groups did not differ in changes on the hard exudates severity scale (P = 0.3460), logarithm of minimum angle of resolution visual acuity (P = 0.5500), or additional ocular treatment during follow-up.

Intensive and standard statin treatment may have similar effects on DR in the population of all patients with DR and hypercholesterolaemia, but intensive therapy may be more beneficial in patients with severe DR.